“Why didn’t you tell her of her danger?”
“Because then, again, she would have left me, and I couldn’t bear to face that. Even if she couldn’t love me, it was a great deal to me just to see her dainty form about the house, and to hear the sound of her voice.”
“Well,” said I, “you call that love, Mr. Carruthers, but I should call it selfishness.”
“Maybe the two things go together. Anyhow, I couldn’t let her go.”
from “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” in The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
you’re an english major